


Bones

by xSpookyScarySkeletonsx



Series: Future Politics [5]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Evidence Licking, F/M, Some Swearing, a car chase, and a lot of bones if the title didn't already tell you that, and a lot of tech talk, and yes i am great at naming things thanks, but we're also gonna do valentine's day, hank giving relationship advice, let me tell you what we have this time, there's a cat, this is a wild ride already, this is primarily a case fic, yay i'm back
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-10-18 17:48:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17585465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSpookyScarySkeletonsx/pseuds/xSpookyScarySkeletonsx
Summary: Connor likes work. Usually.But when a strange crime scene provides next to no leads, he has to rely on other people's skills to solve the case.He also finds out that high-speed car crashes aren't great, not even for advanced prototypes.Oh, and jealousy sucks, too.(Is it going to be helpful to have read the rest of the series? Yes.Is it absolutely necessary? Nope.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A quick bit of housekeeping:  
> I’m back early! Because I’ve realized that I want to post the Valentine’s Day part of this on, you know, Valentine’s Day. But it’s like five chapters in so we gotta get that far before then haha.  
> Usually I write chapter to chapter but I’ve written a large part of this as one big long thing so I’m breaking it into chapters wherever I think works best, which means we’ll have slightly varied lengths. I’m pretty good at updating regularly and up until Valentine’s I’m going to post twice a week. We’ll see how I go after that.  
> We’re currently in February, the year after the game events™️, so about a month after Trace (if you’ve read that). 
> 
> Alright, I think I’m done now.  
> I’m super excited to start posting this because I don’t completely hate it!

 

The red-blue-red-blue flash of the police cars seemed to light up the whole street from the moment Lindsay turned the corner. It was mirrored on the wet asphalt of the road, in the windows of the houses, even the bonnet of her own car. There were police officers everywhere, some already scouring the neighbourhood further down the street. Finally Lindsay parked next to Hank’s shitty _Oldsmobile,_ a car manufacturer that had closed before she had even been born. So Hank was there, too. Great. Or maybe Connor had taken the car. _Wishful thinking_. The android himself had told her he wasn’t particularly fond of driving the vehicle. _‘If I had a death wish, I’m quite certain there’d be an easier way to go about it than in that,’_ he’d said one day.

Even now she felt strangely happy about it. She had the nicer car. It was so fucking petty but for once Lindsay decided she was allowed to feel that way because it was late and she was tired. In fact it was so late that she had been in bed already. Not quite sleeping yet though because she had been debating whether or not to text Connor to convince him to come over. Not that it usually took a lot of convincing to begin with. All she wanted was to watch some stupid show with him until she’d fall asleep and he’d go and do... Well, whatever it was that he did while she slept. But Lindsay’s decision had been made for her when her phone had suddenly vibrated in her hands. 

And that was how she had ended up here, at a crime scene at 10.45pm on a Monday night. Other people got cute goodnight texts; she got invited to come look at an _‘interesting new case’_. 

Lindsay sighed as she fished her jacket from the backseat. She’d only pulled on a hoodie and a pair of leggings before leaving home. It had seemed like a good idea at the time but now she felt terribly underdressed and wrapped the stupid _specialist_ jacket around herself. Admittedly, it was the first time she didn’t completely hate the thing. 

Outside, the rain had mostly cleared up, only a light shower remaining. But it was still cold, windy and uncomfortable. 

Lindsay greeted a few officers as she climbed up the driveway to the front door of the crime scene. The house itself wasn’t particularly run down and looked almost normal, except for the boarded up windows. Then again there were quite a few of those around town now, some people so afraid that a civil war could break out at any time, _again_ , that they felt the need to protect themselves and their families. People on either side. 

On the inside the house was still dark, despite the bright halogenic lights set up everywhere. It took Lindsay’s brain a moment to realize that every single wall in the lounge room was painted black. The furniture, what little there was at least, was black as well. There were two more officers here but they paid her no mind, bowed over a tablet instead. 

At the end of the lounge room was a hallway that led her past the kitchen and to the first bedroom. Here, she found Connor and... 

‘Bones?’ Lindsay heard herself ask dumbly as she blinked at the shelves lined with white. 

‘Correct,’ Connor told her. ‘Human bones, in fact.’ 

‘What the fuck?’ she whispered under her breath as she stepped closer to investigate the collection. There were all sorts of bones everywhere. Some whole, others only fragments. All different shapes and, as Lindsay realized in almost-terror, different sizes. ‘You remember that androids are my specialty, right?’

‘I didn’t ask you to come here to investigate the bones,’ Connor said evenly. ‘There’s something else I’d like to show you.’ 

She followed him further down the house, the black walls and furniture continuing here. That and the swarm of officers, who were now staring at both of them with only thinly veiled curiosity. 

Right. That was a thing now, too. 

It hadn’t exactly been a secret that she and Connor got along all this time. But two weeks ago one of the officers had run into them outside of work. More specifically she had squeezed through a row of seats at the cinema, right past Lindsay curled into Connor’s side. By the next day literally _everyone_ at the station had known and the staring had started. 

At first it had been awkward. Then funny. Now it was just plain annoying, people constantly looking them as if they were waiting for them to jump each other’s bones in front of everyone. Lindsay grimaced at the thought. _Bones._  

They arrived in the second bedroom and she refocused her attention on the case. This room, in a stark contrast to the rest of the house, was almost blindingly white. Sterile.

‘We think it’s some sort of laboratory,’ Connor said. ‘There are stains of Thirium residue everywhere, but they’re too weak for even me to analyse. Someone must have attempted to clean them up with a strong chemical.’

‘So no evidence-licking?’ she asked absent-mindedly. ‘That’s a shame.

It looked like a downgraded version of the labs at the department. Except for the table with what Lindsay _hoped_ was only an android shell on it. No epidermis, no LED. The serial number had been filed off as well, its facial features re-modelled with some sort of cheap plastic to the point where it was impossible to tell what model android it had been. It had no eyes, just two empty sockets. There was a spot on its forearm that had been cracked open, the white casing removed to only show the hollowness inside. So it really was only a shell, then. 

But still Lindsay felt a tinge of sadness that she wished she could ignore. Yet she couldn’t because she just wasn’t made for this type of thing.

‘This is messed up,’ she said finally. ‘I guess I’m here because you think an android did this?’ 

Connor looked down at the shell, his expression so neutral the table might have as well been empty. ‘Yes. We found no trace of either perishable or non-perishable food items or any other objects associated with daily human life.’

Two officers entered the room, clearly ready to remove the exoskeleton.

‘Would you like to see the third bedroom?’

‘Sure.’ Lindsay was glad for the chance to escape, unsure if she wanted to be there for the removal of the body, of sorts.

She began to follow Connor out of the room but stopped when she heard a strange sound behind her. The officers were trying to pick up the shell but it made a rattling noise that shouldn’t have been there and she could feel Connor re-appear behind her.

Letting go of the exoskeleton, the two officers turned to them, shrugging. Slowly Lindsay crossed the room again to reach the table. Then she brought her hand up, using the knuckles of two fingers to knock against the shell. The noise it made was all wrong. Not like it should have sounded with all the bits and pieces of an android still inside, but also not hollow. 

‘It’s not empty,’ she announced. 

Next to her, both officers pulled their guns, pointing them at the table. _Jesus_. But Lindsay bit her tongue and didn’t say anything. 

Finally Connor followed, stopping next to her to lift the undamaged arm of the shell. It made the same rattling noise from before. They looked at each other and Lindsay shrugged.

Carefully Connor released the shell’s chest plate and pushed it aside. The atmosphere in the room was so tense that Lindsay was almost worried one of the officers would shoot her by accident. Then she finally brought herself to look down at the now open exoskeleton. 

It was full of bones.


	2. Chapter 2

It was quiet for a moment as all four of them stared at the shell, trying to process what they were seeing. Then the silence was broken by Hank stopping in the doorway. 

‘The hell are you all looking at?’ 

Connor stepped aside to let the man view the bizarre thing on the table as well. 

Anderson was a lot more vocal about what he saw. ‘Jesus fucking Christ, what in god’s name is that? Didn’t you say that thing was empty?’ 

Lindsay watched Connor’s head tilt. ‘I said the exoskeleton contained no android parts.’ 

Hank frowned down at the bones again. ‘Let me guess: they’re real, too.’ 

‘They are.’ 

The man sighed. ‘I’m too old for this shit,’ he muttered as he left the room. 

 

Connor and Lindsay left the two officers to their own devices and finally moved on to the third bedroom. This space was dark again, although it looked far more lived in. There was a large oak desk pushed against the far wall with a leather chair in front of it, the upholstery torn and frayed in places. The desk itself was littered with papers, most of them discoloured and showing water stains around the edges. Small, jagged handwriting was sprawled across the pages, too slanted for Lindsay to decipher it. 

‘The writing on these pages appears to be encrypted,’ Connor explained finally. ‘There is one more thing I wanted to show you. 

He pulled the only drawer of the desk open. Inside was an old-fashioned ring binder. White and plain, it served as a strange reminder of Lindsay’s childhood. She hadn’t seen a binder like this in a long time. Of course it contained even more papers, as if it wasn’t 2039 and there was no technology. 

The pages in it were in pristine condition, white and straight. There was writing on these pages, too, the perfectly straight and even font almost the opposite of the writing on the yellowed papers. But this didn’t help to clarify the meaning of what was written. They were just sequences of four or five numbers, some with red circles around them.

‘Do you know what these are?’ Lindsay asked. 

‘No, not yet.’ It was rare for Connor to give her so little input at a crime scene but maybe he really didn’t know much yet. ‘I was thinking they might be some sort of obsession. After all we’ve seen deviants obsessed with all kinds of things before.’ 

‘I thought that’s what the bones were,’ Lindsay interjected, her nose wrinkling at the reminder. 

‘I suppose a deviant could have two obsessions. Or perhaps they correlate somehow.’ 

‘No. Everyone only gets _one_ obsession,’ she said jokingly. ‘Actually, maybe there were two deviants.’ 

‘It’s a possibility,’ Connor agreed. ‘This is just about everything I wanted to show you. I’ll walk you back to your car.’ 

Lindsay sighed as she let him take the lead, out of the room and down the hallway. ‘The whole place is crawling with cops. I couldn’t possibly be any safer.’ 

But of course Connor didn’t listen and Lindsay really didn’t have the energy to fight him. Being around him was a matter of knowing which battles to pick. At least she had learned that much. 

The officers were still looking at both of them in that strange way, yet didn’t say anything. Maybe that was what Connor was worried about. But Lindsay wasn’t scared of them or what they had to say. 

 

Outside, the wind had eased up and it was a surprisingly nice night now. In the low light of the street lamps, the rusty spots on Lindsay’s car were almost invisible and the vehicle looked surprisingly good. The sudden feeling of affection for the old rust bucket that flooded Lindsay was ridiculous.

‘Thank you for coming out so late,’ Connor said then, leaning against the side of her car to watch the officers pack up and secure the scene. ‘I wanted you to see this first hand to get a better picture of what we’re dealing with, just in case it really was an android who did all of this.’ 

Lindsay tried not to shiver in the cold air. Her exhaustion didn’t help either. ‘I’m never gonna get that out of my head so it better have been an android. Otherwise I’ll have looked at this horror show for nothing.’ 

‘I wouldn’t say _nothing_. I did want to hear your opinion on it either way.’ 

It didn’t make much sense. Lindsay knew nothing about police work. Maybe he’d just been looking for an excuse to see her. But she frowned over at Connor anyway. ‘Don’t you have Hank for that?’

Technically it was the other way around and the man, who was his superior, had Connor to tell him what had happened at crime scenes. But of course the android thought of himself as far more efficient and just a better investigator. 

‘He doesn’t seem to have a mind for more... bizarre things.’ 

From the house they could hear Hank yelling, probably telling someone off for messing up his crime scene. 

‘So what you’re saying is that out of the two of us you think I’m more the type of person to collect human bones and stuff them into android shells?’ Lindsay made sure to keep her tone light enough for it to be obvious that she was joking. 

Connor seemed amused for a moment before he pushed away from her car. ‘I should let you go. Are you going to be alright by yourself?’ 

She shrugged and pushed away from the driver’s side door as well. ‘Sure. I’m a big girl with a gun.’ 

‘I meant because of the bone thing,’ Connor pointed out as if it wasn’t obvious.

‘Again: I have a gun,’ she told him, grinning. ‘Those bones don’t stand a chance.’ 

The android looked a little like he wanted to roll his eyes at her but instead he just stepped away from the car. ‘Text me if you need me.’ 

‘I will. Don’t text me if you have any more weird shit for me to look at because I’m having a sleep in.’ 

Of course the joke was lost on Connor, who was far more concerned with something else. ‘You need to be at work in the morning.’ 

‘Fuck that. I’m not going in until late.’

 

But, despite Lindsay’s best intentions, she woke up early the next morning. She had texted her supervisor before going to sleep, telling her she’d been at a crime scene until late so theoretically she could have slept in but her body just seemed to have other ideas. 

For a moment Lindsay wanted to be annoyed. Then she resigned to her fate and texted Connor. Of course it was only early but he didn’t sleep anyway. 

He would probably tell her off for being awake so early, seemingly not understanding that sleeping wasn’t something humans could actively control. So without giving him a chance to complain, Lindsay asked him to come over.

It didn’t take any convincing at all and twenty minutes later, when she was waiting for her hot chocolate to be done, _very fancy_ , the front door unlocked. Connor spent a lot of time at her place now but Lindsay didn’t mind. He seemed to have taken a liking to the comfort of her space which they both knew was the stark opposite to his own home. 

Of course Lindsay immediately sauntered across the room to hug him, her arms sneaking underneath his jacket to pull him close. The cold from outside seemed to cling to him, sending shivers across her skin. It didn’t seem right. When they separated she caught one of his hands, his skin equally cold. Connor seemed to guess what she was thinking. 

‘I didn’t bother turning the heating on while I was driving,’ he explained. 

But he wasn’t human and his body temperature was indeed under his control. While androids were designed to run at the same temperature as humans, so they seemed more lifelike, they could run at lower temperatures as well with no negative impact on their functions. 

Which basically meant that Connor had decided not to keep up his temperature in the cold car, even though he knew Lindsay would hug him. _Rude._  

She decided not to complain though. 

‘What car did you drive?’ she asked instead. But Connor only gestured towards the window, clearly intent on continuing to be rude. 

When she peaked outside, there was a police car in her driveway, DPD logo and everything.

‘How did that happen?’ Lindsay asked now, turning back around towards him. 

‘Sarah thinks there is a strange noise coming from the car but her partner doesn’t believe her so she asked me to drive it and pay attention to any potential noises,’ Connor explained.

‘Right. Because you’re an expert on cars.’ She winked at him before she went back into the kitchen to grab her hot chocolate. ‘Wanna come to bed with me?’ 

 

Connor followed her down the hallway and into her bedroom obediently. There was still something intimate about occupying the space together but it wasn’t strange anymore. And besides, Lindsay already missed her bed. It was nice and warm while Connor, for once, was cold. He sat on her bed, in his usual spot because things had to be in order.

Lindsay, forever sappy, pulled her fluffiest blanket from her dresser and draped it over his shoulders, the material pooling on the bed next to him. Then, as an afterthought, she pulled it up over his head before sitting across from him. 

Connor only tilted his head at her. 

‘Don’t look at me like that. You’re freezing cold.’ She knew that theoretically the presence of the blanket alone wouldn’t do anything if he decided not to adjust his temperature but it made Lindsay feel better, at least. 

Finally she reached out again, pulling one corner of the blanket across his front and over his shoulder so he was now swaddled in it completely. 

‘You’re ridiculous,’ Connor told her earnestly. But they both knew he enjoyed the attention. It was one of her more recent discoveries; no matter how much he pretended he didn’t care, he liked her little touches, the hugs, even the way she ran her fingers through his hair occasionally to annoy him. And Lindsay had found that it made her... happy? 

_Gross._

She took a cautious sip of her hot chocolate before setting the cup aside again. ‘So, since you have the car, I guess you were at work? What were you doing there this early?’

Connor looked somewhat guilty immediately. ‘I hadn’t actually left since last night,’ he admitted then, voice small and quiet. 

There were two different ways in which Lindsay wanted to react. One was to just slap some sense into him. The other was to launch herself into a lengthy explanation as to why he needed a break from work. She did neither. Connor would just apologize either way to try and smooth things over. But it wouldn’t make an actual difference. No, this required a little more tact. 

‘Are you worried about the case?’ 

‘Perhaps not worried, per se,’ he began slowly. ‘The details of it are very confusing and there is only a minimal amount of evidence. I was hoping to be able to uncover something more to go on.’ 

His persistent drive to succeed, to complete a mission at any cost, hadn’t changed and maybe never would. Lindsay knew the mechanics behind it, knew how it had been engrained into his original coding. It wasn’t something he could just discard. 

‘It was a pretty strange crime scene,’ she agreed, even though her experience with those was very limited, ‘but the rest of your unit are working on it, too. It’s not just up to you to solve it. And besides, being away from it for a while might even help you see things in a new light. You know, discover something you didn’t notice before.’ 

Connor seemed to think about her words for a moment. Then he nodded. ‘I suppose you’re right.’ 

From under the blanket, his hand untangled some of the fabric and tugged it away, reaching out an arm towards Lindsay. She got the hint and shifted closer, settling against his side as he wrapped both the blanket and his arm around her. 

It was warm under the fluffy material, Connor’s temperature rising again. 

‘Did you sleep alright, despite the crime scene?’ he asked then. 

‘Yeah, I guess. I don’t know, I just woke up early.’  Then she looked up at him, unable to quite hide her dumb smile. ‘At least I get to hang out with you.’

 

There was never enough time to do things together now that everything was settling into some sort of normalcy. The continuous rise of crimes involving androids didn’t exactly help. Between that and the government’s demands to work out exactly when androids had begun going deviant and what had caused it, there was a lot to do. Of course a part of Lindsay wanted to uncover the details of deviancy as much as the next person but it also seemed like a huge waste of time. Androids were sentient now, no matter how it had happened. Why not try and help them instead of focusing on the exact how and why?

 

Connor’s arm around her squeezed a little tighter. It was still hard for him to express exactly how he was feeling but they made do. Of course it was far from perfect. Things had been difficult and it wasn’t an easy relationship. But it seemed worth it, somehow. There wasn’t a lot to talk about sometimes, apart from work. Although today Lindsay did have something to tell. 

‘I’m meant to go feed my friend’s cat tonight because she’s out of town. You should come.’

Connor liked animals after all, but he had only had very few opportunities to actually interact with any. She had shown him the fluffy ragdoll in some of the photos and videos her friend, Sophia, had sent in the last few weeks and he seemed to enjoy hearing about it. 

‘If I come with you, can I pat the cat?’ he asked so seriously as if they were talking about a crime scene instead of a furry feline. 

‘Sure. She’s pretty friendly, I think.’ Lindsay hadn’t been to Sophia’s apartment by herself very often and the cat usually went into hiding when their entire friend group showed up there. Which was understandable, really. There were only four of them but things got loud sometimes. 

‘Alright. I’ll pick you up from work so we can go together.’ Connor said it as though it was the most normal thing. 

‘So how do I get my car home if you pick me up?’ 

‘You don’t. I’ll take you to work as well.’ 

She was going to complain because she really didn’t need her boyfriend to tell her what to do. Then again getting to ride in a police car didn’t seem too bad. 

‘Fine,’ Lindsay agreed. ‘I should go get ready anyway.’ 

But Connor didn’t move, didn’t let her go. ‘Five more minutes,’ he said finally. 

‘I’m going to be late. I told Gabriela I’d be there by ten.’ It was a half-hearted protest and they both knew it. She wasn’t very good at telling Connor no. But who could blame her when he looked at her _like that_ with his big, sad eyes any time she declined him anything? 

‘You’ll get to work on time. I wouldn’t let you be late,’ he tried to assure her anyway. In truth it was a bit rich to say he wouldn’t _let her_ be late. This wasn’t a moment Lindsay wanted to spend arguing about semantics though. 

‘Alright, five more minutes,’ she agreed.

 

But of course five more minutes turned into ten when they both lost track of time. Well, more precisely Lindsay relied on Connor to keep track and apparently, for once, he didn’t. 

Then she couldn’t find her stupid ID card for work and by the time they actually left, there wasn’t a lot of time for her to get to the department. 

As expected, because that was how things always worked out, the streets were flooded with traffic. It was slow going but still somehow doable. Maybe. Up until the traffic light in front of them turned red and Lindsay sighed.

‘I’m totally going to be late for work now.’ 

There was a pause and Connor drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. 

‘No, you’re not,’ he said finally and reached over to switch the sirens on. 

They started up almost immediately and the cars in front of them began to crawl onto the intersection despite of the red lights. Their own car practically shot past them and down the road. 

Lindsay finally found her voice again. ‘What the hell are you doing?’ 

‘I made you late for work so I’m fixing it.’

This was it. This was how she was going to die. Speeding down busy streets in a police car with her android boyfriend gone mad behind the wheel. At least it wasn’t a boring way to die. 

They were making good time now that the roads just about cleared in front of them. 

‘I don’t know what’s gotten into you,’ Lindsay said despite of everything.

‘Didn’t I just explain myself? And besides, I’m making sure this car is fully functional during all speeds.’ 

She couldn’t believe that Connor was going to use _that_ as an excuse. The whole thing seemed so unlike him, except for the part where he was concerned about her being late for work. 

 

The car came to a screeching halt in front of the department, sirens still blaring. Passers-by were staring at the vehicle, waiting for something exciting to happen. 

_So awkward._

‘I’ll see you tonight, yeah?’ Lindsay leaned across the centre console to kiss him. 

‘Don’t forget about the cat.’ Very romantic. At least Connor kissed her back. 

‘Sure.’ More like _I regret inviting you already_. But she couldn’t say that. Instead she exited the car, ignoring the people giving her funny looks on the sidewalk and entered the department. 

The lobby was crowded with people, all of whom practically froze when they saw her enter, the sirens of the police car barely dimmed by the glass doors sliding shut behind Lindsay. From behind the front desk the receptionist grinned at her. 

This was sure to be a good day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me: hates putting dates into fics  
> also me: writes a fic that heavily relies on dates  
> Some day I’ll figure out how to do that properly. Today is not that day.

Connor kept the sirens on until he was only about a block away from the precinct. Of course he had a whole list of completely logical reasons as to why he had turned them on in the first place. But there had also been something different to it, a strange feeling of excitement at the prospect of driving a police car down the road like a real cop. In between all the regulations surrounding androids and his specialist title, Connor felt almost useless sometimes. Had they only hired him out of pity and was he ever going to be an actual cop?

He parked the car in the DPD’s designated area and entered the precinct. While people had gotten used to his presence there, they had begun staring again since they’d found out about him and Lindsay. Maybe he would have found it uncomfortable if he hadn’t been so used to it. And besides, Connor found it almost pleasing that everyone seemed so hyper-aware of the fact that he had a girlfriend. 

His desk was exactly as he had left it, almost completely tidy except for the two tablets full of crime scene photos. Of course he had all the evidence saved in his own memory unit but it was helpful to see them on an external screen sometimes. That was if they weren’t ridiculously cryptic. Nothing about this case seemed to quite make sense. Where would an android get so many human bones? Where would _anyone_? Surely a single android hadn’t killed this many people and robbed their bodies of their bones without anyone noticing. The bones didn’t even have anything in common. Just a random assortment of separated skeletons. And why had there been an android shell full of them? How did that make any sense at all? 

Maybe it was some sort of offering. Although to what, Connor couldn’t say.  But he could hear steps coming closer. Most likely Hank. They stopped in front of his desk and Connor looked up. 

‘What is it, Lieutenant?’

He hadn’t quit any of his unhealthy habits but he had begun showing up to work at a more reasonable time. It was a start.

‘Forensics says the bones they’ve tested so far are about a hundred years old,’ the man said with a slightly disgusted expression. 

‘Did they match any known DNA profiles?’ Connor asked patiently, despite the slight tug of irritation at not receiving this information immediately.

‘Again; They’re a hundred years old. There was no fucking DNA testing back in the day.’ 

This made him pause, head tilting slightly. But it was true, even with his temporary lack of realization that technology hadn’t always been what it was now. 

‘Right. So we still have nothing,’ Connor asserted then. 

Hank grimaced. ‘Yeah, don’t be too positive.’ 

But the android barely heard him. There was something here, something in the evidence. He quickly brought up the crime scene photos, swiping through them almost frantically until he reached one of the photos of the papers. More specifically, the ones with the numbers on them. _Over a hundred years_. That meant... 

‘They’re dates,’ Connor said aloud, trying to at least partially cover up his excitement over this small discovery. 

‘What?’ Hank stared at him blankly. It was too early for him to function properly. 

‘The numbers. They’re dates. You said the bones were more than one hundred years old. All of the numbers depict dates more than a hundred years in the past.’ 

Finally Connor enlarged one of the numbers to illustrate his point. ‘This one here, for example,’ he began again then. ‘The number is 1531. It could stand for May 1, 1931.’ 

But Hank didn’t seem very convinced. ‘That’s really vague. I mean it could be January 5, 1931.’

‘It could also stand for March 1, 1951 or for January 3 in the same year, if they were trying to be particularly clever,’ Connor explained, finally giving up on trying to not sound excited. This was better than nothing. ‘Either way, I can run all four versions of these dates and compare them to any known occurrences of the unlawful obtainment of human remains.’

Hank grimaced at him. ‘You mean like grave robbery?’ 

‘Exactly like grave robbery,’ Connor confirmed. At least they had something now. He was already converting all of the numbers into their multiple date-variations and began to cross-check them against reported cases. The dates of death on the graves was usually in the case files and he compared them to the dates on the lists. 

‘I’ve found twenty-one matches so far,’ Connor said finally. ‘The closest is from a cemetery only twenty minutes from here. We should go check it out.’

 

Connor thought he’d heard Hank complain a lot in the past. The weather, androids, Captain Fowler, androids, the Detroit Gears losing a game, androids. The list of his most frequent topics was long. Visiting a graveyard in the pouring rain at 11.30 in the morning hadn’t been on it before but it most definitely was now. 

‘Fucking hell,’ he huffed under his breath for the seventh time in as many minutes. 

‘That’s a very inappropriate thing to say in a place such as this,’ Connor reminded him finally. 

‘Do I look like I fucking care?’ Hank asked. 

‘Is that a rhetorical question or would you like me to answer?’ the android asked back, slightly confused. 

‘What? Just forget I said anything.’ 

They had finally reached the small building where the city council workers kept their equipment. Hank had of course called in before they’d left the precinct, hoping someone would be there to tell them about the case they had opened. At the other end of the line, the person had assured him there would be plenty of employees present. 

Connor hadn’t quite had it in himself yet to remind Hank that they would most likely all be androids. The man would have surely rejected the idea of this whole trip, then. 

As they came closer, they spotted some of the employees through the open door of the building. They were mostly well-known maintenance-type androids and Hank stopped dead in his tracks upon realizing this. 

‘For Christ’s sake,’ he huffed and Connor tried not to grimace at _that_ kind of language in _this_ kind of place, again. ‘You can deal with those.’ 

He wanted to remind his superior that he was _one of those_ , too. But the point would have been lost presently, sure to fall on deaf ears. Instead Connor said nothing and continued to make his way to the building. Then he knocked on the splintered wood of the door frame. Courtesy. The androids had certainly spotted him from a mile away. 

One of them looked him up and down, almost scoffing. ‘You’re not here to work, are you?’ 

There was a familiar comfort in being recognized nearly everywhere he went, one which was almost sorely missed in its absence. 

‘My name is Connor,’ he introduced himself, ‘I’m with the Detroit Police.’ It didn’t come out quite as confidently as he had intended it to. _‘The android sent by CyberLife’_ had been on the tip of his tongue, despite everything. 

‘This is Lieutenant Anderson,’ he said instead, gesturing in the general direction of the man. ‘We would like to ask you some questions about a case that was filed at the start of last year. It’s about a grave robbery.’ 

The change in the air was almost unmissable as the androids exchanged a look. 

‘What about it?’ one of them asked then. 

‘Well, we believe we may have found at least some of the remains that were taken and we’d like to hear what you remember from the incident.’

The group of androids seemed to try and close in on Connor as they moved towards the door. It would have been all too easy to take a step back, clear the way for them to actually come out and surround him. Connor even felt vaguely threatened. But he didn’t move, effectively cutting off their forwards motion. 

‘What we remember,’ one of them started, ‘is that we got here one day and the grave had been opened. That’s it.’ 

It was literally no information at all. Of course the grave had been opened. If only he could still just probe the memories of other androids.

‘Can you tell me anything about the days leading up to the incident? Did you see anything suspicious or out of the ordinary?’

‘Nope,’ another android said, grinning.

This was not going well and Connor decided he needed to use a different approach. Before he lost his patience. 

‘Well, maybe you could tell me about the days leading up to the incident anyway. I’m certain you take pride in your work and want this resolved as much as I do.’ Or maybe it had been them and that was why they were behaving so strangely. He’d need to check the records of their former storage facility to see if there were any irregularities. 

‘Pride?’ one of the androids scoffed. ‘We’re just here for money and because we get to bury fucking humans.’ The distain with which he said it was almost morbid and Connor decided to abandon this approach. 

‘If you don’t cooperate I will have no choice but to bring you in and charge you with obstruction of justice,’ he told them in his most stern voice. His patience had run out and he was done wasting his time. There were other things to do after all. 

Finally this seemed to do the trick and they were escorted to the final resting place that had been disturbed just over a year ago. 

Of course there wasn’t much to look at now, just a muddy, messy patch of dirt with a few lone and abused straws of grass next to a paved pathway. A few trees shielded this old section of the graveyard from the newer one, enormous headstones lining the mostly abandoned graves. There were no family members left to take care of them, at least not ones who remembered the deceased. 

The group of androids stood off to the side, looking very smug at what little they had to present. They didn’t need to say _we told you so_ to make it known it was exactly what they were thinking. 

Hank spun around himself once, slowly, surveying the scene. ‘Come on,’ he said then. ‘No point standing in the fucking rain, getting soaked for nothing.’ As if they weren’t soaking wet already. 

But Connor wasn’t ready to give up so easily. Not when they had nothing else to go on and there was a group of people just waiting for him to fail. He watched the rain collect in a large puddle on the pathway, only very slowly disappearing down a drain. 

Maybe if he just tried harder, he would find something. There was always something, if you knew where to look. 

Then it hit him. 

‘Was it raining on the day of the incident?’ Connor asked without turning to look at the small group of androids. 

‘Yeah. But when is it ever not raining?’ 

Instead of engaging in a conversation about the weather, he went over to the drain. If there had been any evidence left behind that day, it was likely to have been washed away by the rain. With a bit of luck, it had gotten stuck in the drain. The chance of this happening was only at about fifteen percent, but it was worth checking. 

Connor lifted the metal grate covering the drain and tossed it onto the dirt patch. 

‘You find something?’ Hank asked. 

‘Maybe.’ 

A quick scan of the newly uncovered area revealed a whole lot of dirt, leaves in various states of disintegration, water... and plastic. It was out of Connor’s current reach and he had to halfway lie down in the puddle surrounding the drain to be able to grasp it. If he thought he’d been soaked before, he was absolutely drenched now. And muddy. 

Ignoring Hank’s complaints behind him, he surveyed the small piece of plastic now resting in his palm. It was covered in slimy moss and Connor used the sleeve of his already ruined jacket to wipe the substance away. The plastic itself was white and his scans confirmed his suspicions: there was a ninety-five percent chance that it was a piece of android. 

 

They left the cemetery, reminding the group of android to let them know if they remembered anything else about the day of the incident. Connor was already sure that the reminder was just a waste of time. But when they reached the car, he found himself confronted with a whole new problem, one that he hadn’t expected at all.

‘You’re not getting in my car like that,’ Hank complained as he gestured at Connor. ‘You can sit on Sumo’s blanket in the boot or something.’ 

While it was true that the android was wet and filthy, he didn’t exactly see the point here. ‘Lieutenant, your car is already dirty. How would my presence make a difference?’ 

‘If you don’t shut your plastic mouth,’ the man hissed at him while stabbing a finger in his chest, ‘you can walk back to the station.’ 

Connor found it unlikely that he would actually make him walk but decided not to comment nevertheless. 

They reached a compromise when he found an old DPD sweater in the backseat of the car. It felt a little weird to strip out of his jacket and shirt in the parking lot of a graveyard, but there was no other option. The sweatshirt itself was a little big for Connor and the material felt strange. Too light, not comparable to his jacket, yet somehow itchy against his synthetic skin. Hank gave him an odd look but didn’t say anything as they drove back to the station. 

 

‘We should contact all the other cemeteries that reported incidents involving graves with applicable dates and see if anyone there can remember anything peculiar about the referenced days,’ Connor finally said as they had made it halfway back already. ‘Most of them are out of state but we could have some local units investigating the crime scenes. Or what’s left of them.’ 

The car in front of them, an old vehicle as well, suddenly took a sharp left turn without any warning. Hank began swearing and Connor waited patiently for him to stop. 

‘That’s a good idea,’ he said after he finally calmed down, ’but it’ll take ages. Way longer than Fowler is gonna want to deal with this. No one’s been murdered yet or anything, he probably wants to get this over with as fast as possible.’ 

‘I’ve started contacting the various city councils already,’ Connor said as he sent out another email, his communications software doing its job admirable. ‘The affected cemeteries all seem to be run by the local council so it shouldn’t be too hard to get them to cooperate. They are government institutions after all.’

But the praise for his efficiency he had expected didn’t come. Instead Hank stayed almost suspiciously silent. Connor’s special skills always seemed to make him uncomfortable, an unwanted reminder of the fact that he was different. 

 

By the time they reached their desks at the precinct, Connor had contacted every city council that fit his criteria. He quickly snuck away to the restroom to check on his hair and his new outfit. The DPD sweatshirt was big and washed out, making him look untidy. Even worse, between getting soaking wet and getting changed, his hair had gotten mussed and wavy, now more than only one strand hanging across his forehead. Connor tried to smooth it back but no matter what he did, it just didn’t look right. Eventually he gave up and moved to straighten his tie... which wasn’t there. 

Of course not. 

He frowned at his reflection in irritation, thinking he just wanted to go home to get changed but there was no time. 

Just as Connor left the restroom, he received the first reply regarding the graveyard robbery crime scenes. All he had to do was convince Captain Fowler to arrange having the local police investigate the scene again. 

Easy.


	4. Chapter 4

_5.01 PM_

Lindsay sighed to herself as she watched time pass by on her computer screen. Of course this had to be the one instance in which Connor was late. Only by a minute, but still. 

Work had been so boring, with only two messages from her android boyfriend to keep her company. The first one had been something about a graveyard, which Lindsay had honestly been too afraid to ask about any further. The next message had been reminding her that Connor would pick her up so they could go and feed Sophia’s cat. It had seemed like such a good idea at first but now he was just too excited. At this rate, Lindsay would never hear the end of it. If he ever actually showed up. 

Sighing, she switched her computer off, thinking she’d rather wait out in the cold than be cooped up in her stupid office any longer. Then she gathered her things, tossing them into her bag before heading towards the elevator. 

Lindsay’s floor was still busy, most of her co-workers not being strangers to working overtime. She received a few jealous nods while she waited for the elevator, especially from an analyst who had seen her arrive late in the morning. It was almost uncomfortable and she felt the need to justify herself for the time she did, or rather _didn’t_ , work. But then the elevator doors opened with a ping and Lindsay escaped the situation. 

Once inside, the doors had barely closed in front of her when she finally received the long awaited text message. Perfect timing.

She spotted the police car the moment she exited the building, double parked, and smiled to herself. There was something special and exciting about being picked up like this, even though it was stupid. 

And yet, when she actually entered the car, Lindsay had a whole new thing to think about. 

‘What the hell are you wearing?’ 

Her android boyfriend, whom she had seen wearing his usual shirt and jacket combo only seven hours prior, was now wearing the ugliest, most washed out sweatshirt. The sight was so astoundingly novel that she straight out froze in her seat. 

‘Could you close the door?’ 

She heard the words but they didn’t process. Instead her brain focused on how Connor’s hair was kind of... Wavy? Curly? Somewhere in between the two.

‘Lindsay,’ he said sternly as a car behind them honked. ‘Door.’ 

This kicked her back into gear and she finally pulled the door shut.

‘Sorry,’ she started just as the car began to roll, ‘but I just... What happened to you?’ 

‘Nothing happened,’ Connor said it so naturally as if there was no reason to even ask the question. ‘Where am I meant to go?’ 

Lindsay sent the address of her friend’s apartment to the police car and the GPS began doing its job. 

‘Alright, I have to ask one more time. What are you wearing?’ 

‘It’s a sweatshirt,’ Connor told her as he took a left turn. 

Of course. 

‘I know,’ she said, finally realizing that this wasn’t going to get her anywhere. ‘Where did it come from?’ 

‘The backseat of Hank’s car.’ He followed the directions of the GPS, changing lanes to prepare for a right turn ahead. 

‘Why are you wearing it?’ Lindsay thought this very slow way of asking questions was almost painful. 

‘As I mentioned in my text, we went to a graveyard to investigate a crime scene related to last night’s case. It was raining at the time and I happened to get wet.’ The traffic light ahead of them turned red and Connor stopped the car at the back of the queue.

Meanwhile Lindsay felt like she hadn’t received any new information. She had seen the android soaking wet with rain literally running down his artificial skin and he had never seemed to mind before. ‘So you put on -’ she gestured at the sweater, ‘ _that_ , because you got wet?’ 

‘Wet and filthy, to be precise. Hank threatened not to let me into his car if I didn’t find a solution.’ 

At least this made a little more sense and it most definitely sounded like something the man would do. 

‘Did you find anything at the crime scene?’ Lindsay asked then, her curiosity temporarily satisfied and thinking that this would most likely be an easier topic for Connor to talk about. 

‘I did,’ he confirmed. ‘There was a small piece of plastic stuck in a drain near the former grave. It’s with forensics for analysis but my scans have shown there’s a ninety-five percent chance that it’s from the shell of an android.’ 

This was an impressive achievement and Lindsay felt like she should have focused on that, but her brain had different ideas. 

‘You found it in a drain?’ she questioned. ‘Are you telling me you got covered in graveyard water?’

‘It was just rainwater that was pooling around the drain,’ Connor explained patiently as they got closer to their destination.

’You have, like, dead people juice on you,’ Lindsay half-shrieked, her mind already made up. She’d have to avoid hugging him for the rest of the day now. _Gross._  

‘That’s not how it works.’ At least Connor sounded a little put out as well now. ‘In any case, where should I park?’ 

 

The apartment complex in which Sophia lived came with a designated parking area and Lindsay directed him towards it. Then they took the elevator up to the sixth floor while Connor insisted that he hadn’t been covered in _dead people juice_ and Lindsay pretended she didn’t understand any of his so very reasonable arguments. But he didn’t sound quite as convincing as he usually did, which was largely due to the fact that it was difficult to take him seriously when the worn out sweatshirt kept sliding down his wrists and over his hands, no matter how many times he pushed it back. 

Eventually they reached the door to the correct apartment and Lindsay swiped her friend’s key card, the lock popping open with a click. From inside the apartment she could already hear the cat meow. She pushed the door open slowly, careful not to let the furry animal out. Sophia would kill her if anything happened to her. And Connor would be awfully disappointed if they lost the cat before he could interact with her, which was much worse. He seemed a little awkward about entering her friend’s apartment though, still lingering in the hallway. 

‘Come on,’ Lindsay encouraged him. ‘No one’s here, remember?’ 

Finally he followed her, shutting the door behind him. It took a moment for the android to take it all in. Sophia’s apartment was the opposite of her own space, cluttered with knick-knacks and personal items, prints and posters lining the walls and, much to Lindsay’s dismay, photos everywhere. More specifically, a lot of photos that depicted their little friend-group throughout the years. How Sophia could even hear herself _think_ with all this stuff around was a mystery just as much as how she kept the cat out of all of it. 

Said feline came out from underneath the kitchen table, having apparently decided that Lindsay was safe, as she began to stroll around her legs, butting her head against her shins while starting to purr. 

‘Hey cutie,’ she said softly as she reached out a hand. The cat, Sally, smelled it for a moment before head-butting it as well. Lindsay decided that this was a sign that the animal remembered her.

‘Come here,’ she told Connor then. He was still hovering near the door. ‘Sit on the floor with her. She’ll get used to you.’

The android did as he was told while Lindsay quickly walked through the apartment to make sure everything was alright. She wasn’t sure why she did it or what she had expected to find. When she returned to the living area, Sally and Connor had entered a staring contest, the cat sitting on the floor across from the android. _Dear god._  

‘Are you not going to feed her?’ he asked without taking his eyes off the animal. ‘I thought that was the purpose of our visit.’ 

‘I will later on. Just thought she might be friendlier when she’s hungry.’ It sounded so mean but Lindsay just wanted Connor to have the opportunity to pat the damn cat. 

She seemed to have other ideas though and came towards Lindsay as soon as she sat on the ground as well, her legs stretched out and hands behind her on the floor to keep herself propped up. Sally immediately occupied the space behind her back, her head bumping into Lindsay’s elbows. When the cat didn’t receive the attention she so desperately wanted, she began meowing again. But even this didn’t help. 

After a short moment she abandoned her current technique and instead focused on a new target.

Lindsay watched as Sally slowly stalked towards Connor before climbing into his lap. She laid down, her paws flexing. As if to show Lindsay that she most definitely didn’t need her attention.

Connor on the other hand seemed afraid to move, his eyes wide as he looked down at the animal

‘Pat the poor thing!’ Lindsay whisper-yelled at him. 

He raised a hand, almost more tentatively than the cat had been, and placed it on the animal’s back cautiously. Sally didn’t run away, actually didn’t move at all, and it seemed to be all the encouragement Connor needed as he finally began running his hand through the cat’s soft fur. In turn she began purring again almost immediately. Then she rolled around underneath his hand, baring her belly. Connor’s fingers ran through the fuzzy hair there and Sally’s back legs flopped down while her front legs came up, lazily swiping at the android’s arm. 

He looked down at the animal in his lap as if she was the eighth wonder of the world. Lindsay watched the little scene unfold and almost wished she could wipe the stupid grin off her face. But it was just too cute. 

Eventually Connor looked back up at her. ‘I think I like cats,’ he said then. 

‘I like cats, too.’ 

Sally didn’t seem to appreciate the sudden need to share the attention she received with Lindsay, instead swiping at Connor’s arm a little harder. He glanced down at the animal and renewed his efforts. 

‘Animals are very interesting,’ he asserted finally. 

‘Yeah. When it gets warmer I’m totally taking you to the zoo.’ If only the weather was nicer already. Lindsay would have done just about anything to see Connor look so at ease. And if it took animals to achieve that, she wasn’t going to complain. 

‘That sounds like fun,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Although it might not be warm enough for a while.’ There was something almost close to disappointment in his voice. 

‘In the meantime we can always go to the aquarium,’ Lindsay told him to try and make it better. Then she looked down at her phone and sighed. ‘I should probably feed her so we can get going.’  

Feeding the cat was a simply task and she was happily chewing away at her food when they said goodbye, seemingly not even noticing when they left. Lindsay still felt a little bad to leave her alone, even though Sophia would be back the next day. 

 

The drive home was quiet as Connor wove the car through the early evening traffic of the city. But the thought of actually arriving was something Lindsay almost dreaded. It was so quiet with Rosie gone, something she still wasn’t used to. She almost felt pathetic every time she turned the TV on to eat dinner, just so she wouldn’t feel as alone. Of course she couldn’t ask Connor to spend every free moment with her, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t wish to have him around more. 

The police car stopped in her driveway and Lindsay sighed quietly. 

‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ she said as she reached for her work bag. Connor didn’t turn towards her. 

‘I’m hoping to have some data for you to work on tomorrow.’ 

‘Can’t wait.’ She looked at him patiently, her upper body somewhat angled towards him. But of course he didn’t get the hint, instead continuing to stare at her garage door. Eventually she resorted to saying his name.

‘Yes?’ Now he did turn, looking confused. Lindsay would have banged her head against something if he wasn’t so adorable. 

‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’ she asked patiently. 

It took a long moment but eventually he did lean in to kiss her. Of course it was short and chaste, literally just a quick peck on the lips but better than nothing. 

‘Sorry,’ Connor said then, ‘I’m still getting used to this.’ 

‘It’s fine.’ Lindsay smiled at him brightly. ‘I’ll let you go.’


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to wait until Valentine’s Day to post this but I have no self-control. I’ll post the next chapter on Thursday so that makes up for it haha.  
> We’re getting back to the case properly next week!
> 
> Also did you know that in 2039, Valentine’s Day is on a Monday? Which was super impractical in terms of this story so I changed it because I can (and you’ll only notice if you remember what day it was in the first chapter).

The next morning, Connor had already heard back from every single city council he had contacted and multiple teams had been to several different locations to investigate. And yet the result was absolutely nothing. 

It made him want to rip his own synthetic hair out and scream at someone, both of which seemed like rather strange notions. Sometimes it was hard to keep his feelings in check, to function in spite of them. A slow learning process, one which he didn’t have any time for right now. 

Again he had nothing, no leads to follow up on, no clues to put together a few more pieces of the puzzle. Maybe forensics would be able to tell him more about the piece of plastic he had found and, ideally, the disfigured android shell at the actual crime scene. But Ashley, the person in charge of both pieces of evidence, didn’t normally come in until 8am. Which was another one and a half hours away. 

Connor had spent another night at work, co-ordinating the investigation at out of state locations. It made him wish he could travel. For all he knew there was evidence left behind everywhere and they just didn’t find it. 

 _No._ That way of thinking was hardly helpful. He had to focus on things that were actually under his control.

The effects of patting Sally the cat had obviously worn of quickly. Having pets around was supposed to decrease stress and anxiety. Maybe that only worked on humans, though, and wasn’t applicable to androids. 

If only everyone else started working earlier. At this time of day the precinct was still mostly dark and abandoned. Even more so, there was no one to discuss the case with. Hank would straight out kill him this early in the morning and even Lindsay wasn’t usually awake at this time. There most likely wouldn’t be a repeat of the day before, where she had asked him to come over. Connor hadn’t wanted to ask to spend time together the night before because he’d thought he was too busy. But he had miscalculated and now he was bored. 

Reviewing the evidence from the case for the thirty-fourth time didn’t help either. It wasn’t as though the pictures had suddenly changed to reveal some sort of secret information that had been invisible before. 

And yet the photo of the android shell filled with bones gave Connor pause. There was nothing logical about it, nothing he could even remotely explain. Why would anyone do that? Was there any significance to the hole in the arm of the shell? 

The shape did look familiar, reminding him of something that he couldn’t quite pinpoint. Where had he seen that before? 

‘The plastic from the cemetery,’ Connor muttered to himself when realization suddenly struck him. His voice sounded strangely loud in the still empty station. But he didn’t pay any attention to it, instead heading to forensics to get the small sliver of plastic back. It was still sitting in its little bag right where he had left it on top of Ashley’s workstation, his own neat handwriting cataloguing it to the current case. Then he carried it downstairs to the evidence room. 

The android shell in question was spread out on a table, covered with a thin plastic sheet and all the bones removed from it. Connor tossed the sheet aside to gain access to the area he needed. When he held the evidence bag containing the plastic part up, it looked like a match. But he had to be sure and so he took the part out of the bag. 

It slotted into the damaged shell perfectly. 

For a moment, this seemed like good news. He had managed to find further evidence where no one else had seen anything. This investigation was finally moving forwards and it was all thanks to him. 

Then he realized that this only brought up more questions and answered none. 

It was only 6.58am. 

‘ _Hank is going to be so angry_ ,’ Connor thought to himself as he dialed the man’s number.

  

But Hank wasn’t the only one who was angry. Well, maybe angry wasn’t the right word. _Irritated_ was more like it. 

Because irritated was exactly how Lindsay had felt upon receiving a text exactly one minute after her alarm went off.

Something about _the plastic fits into the shell._

Other people got cute good morning texts from their boyfriends, she got cryptic messages about what she could only assume was crime scene evidence. 

But her brain hadn’t known what to do with that information early in the morning. So Lindsay had sent back no less than six question marks. Even Connor’s explanation hadn’t made her feel any better. He had seemed so excited and she had tried to go along with it but _dear god_ , this was her life now. It would have been charming, maybe, if it wasn’t about a piece of plastic Connor had dug out of a cemetery drain and an abandoned android shell. 

Lindsay couldn’t help but to think she would have loved to have been there when he had discovered this new fact. He had probably lit up like a Christmas tree for a split second before trying to force his expression into something more neutral again, but only succeeding partially. She had seen him do it at crime scenes before, always so proud of his work. Why Connor didn’t want anyone to see this though remained a mystery. Maybe he didn’t quite know what to do with these feelings himself yet. Maybe their intensity scared him. Besides, it was far too easy to be ridiculed for one’s achievements. And it hurt. 

Lindsay felt bad for not being quite as enthusiastic about his discovery as she could have been. But it was nothing that a few strategic words couldn’t fix. Connor didn’t hold grudges, at least not so far. She’d ask him about the whole thing the next time she’d see him. He’d be thrilled at the opportunity to tell her everything in detail and in turn Lindsay would tell him he had done well. Problem solved. 

Why this mattered so much, she didn’t know either. 

‘Stop being so sappy,’ she told herself as she forced her attention back towards her terminal.

Her eyes skimmed across her report for what felt like the hundredth time. It had taken two months but Lindsay had finally finished going through an enormous stack of old police files and the data belonging to them to determine if there had been any cases of deviancy that pre-dated what few incident reports they had from CyberLife. She’d spent hours upon hours watching footage of androids that had been involved in crimes one way or another as well as analyzing readings taken from them. Compiling everything into one huge report had taken far longer than Lindsay had ever wanted to deal with this. But it was done now. Yet she didn’t want to send it. There was a certain rivalry between her and the DPD’s only other consultant analyst, Johnson, and if her own report didn’t outshine his by miles, she was sure she’d never hear the end of it. 

Only half a year ago she would have been confident enough to just send the damn thing. But now everything was so different. It seemed like there was so much more to consider now and Lindsay wasn’t quite sure if she was up to the task. Instead she had typed out a whole email, added all the required recipients to her sending list and had uploaded the file containing her report. Then she had promptly decided to read the whole thing one last time. Just to make sure. 

Lindsay sighed to herself as she looked away from the screen and down to the little fake plant on her desk. The object had been a Christmas present from Connor and it took pride of place next to her terminal. It had been a well thought-out gift and was just about the only colorful thing in her otherwise dreary office. Even now she smiled at the plant and resisted the urge to send her stupid report only to Connor so he could check it over first. But it wasn’t his problem and it didn’t seem fair to make him correct her work. Not that he would have minded, of course. But Lindsay did. 

Her fingers tapped against the edge of her desk as she felt herself grow more frustrated at the problem. ‘This is so stupid,’ she finally whispered to herself as she hit the send-button. 

There. Done. 

 _Oh no_. She should have read it again. Just to make sure her grammatical skills hadn’t suddenly turned into those of a toddler or that she hadn’t completely forgotten how numbers worked. 

A knock on the door almost made Lindsay jump out of her skin. 

‘What?’ she yelled, regretting her tone immediately. 

The door opened, revealing a very confused and slightly intimidated looking android in some sort of work uniform. 

‘Miss Carter?’ the android asked. 

Yes, _obviously_ , as the sign next to her office door said. 

‘That’s me,’ Lindsay forced out through gritted teeth instead. This whole interaction was a nightmare. 

‘My name is Candace, I’m with Direct-Flowers. I have a delivery for you today.’ Only now Lindsay noticed the cart sitting out in the hallway, full of flowers and other Valentine’s Day related things. Right, that was today. 

‘I think you might have the wrong person,’ she said, feeling like an idiot. Who in their right mind would give her flowers? Everyone she was that close to knew she was allergic. 

The android blinked at her for a moment, her expression straight out bored as she re-confirmed Lindsay’s name. 

Of course this left Lindsay with no point to argue and an enormous bouquet of flowers. Also a perfectly white envelope tucked in between the flowers. 

‘What the hell?’ she whispered under her breath as she set the monstrosity down on her desk to remove the paper. 

Well, it wasn’t a _monstrosity_ , really. The bouquet was actually quite pretty, a tasteful mix of greenery and blooms in muted colours, wrapped in dark blue paper. 

Lindsay ignored how her nose was already beginning to itch as she opened the white envelope. There was a card inside, something pink and Valentine’s Day themed that she didn’t have the patience to look at. No, the inside of the card was much more interesting. 

_‘Happy Valentine’s Day, babe! We should catch up soon. Love, Aaron.’_

_Oh._

_Oh, no._

Lindsay threw the card back onto her desk as if it had suddenly caught fire. This wasn’t good, most definitely wasn’t what she hadn’t wanted at all. 

Aaron, former security guard at CyberLife and a casual acquaintance. 

Well, sort of casual. 

In an intimate way that had involved very little talking and even fewer clothes.

Then he had ruined everything by asking her out on a date in November and Lindsay had told him she didn’t want to see him again. 

She’d mentioned him to Connor once or twice, only very vaguely explaining the extent of their acquaintance because it was awkward. But surely Connor had gotten the idea. Which didn’t help Lindsay’s current problem at all.

What on earth was she going to do about this?

Her first impulse was to text her friends, ask for help. Then she realized they wouldn’t see a problem with the whole situation because they didn’t know about her boyfriend. Lindsay’s only other idea was to text Connor, who always had a solution for everything... and who was part of the problem. Not ideal.

‘Why is this happening to me?’ she huffed at the card, which didn’t know the answer either. 

Well, maybe this situation didn’t require any reaction. Lindsay could just wait for Eva to come back from her late lunch break and give her the flowers. Throw the stupid card in the bin. Forget this ever happened. 

Who even needed artificial intelligence when she was so brilliant at solving problems? 

With this issue out of the way, she put the flowers aside and pushed the card somewhere underneath them. She’d throw it out later, into the bin in the kitchen, so she wouldn’t have to look at it again in her office. For now she was still busy obsessing over the report she had already sent. 

Ten minutes had passed; people were probably starting to read it.

 _Oh god._ Connor would have finished downloading and processing her report by now. He was sure to comment on it, much like he would have done if Lindsay had sent it to him first. With the difference that now she wouldn’t be able to edit it anymore. Even worse, Connor, now that he wasn’t forced to filter everything he said through a social skills program, could be quite blunt with his opinions. Honest, usually constructive, but blunt. Sometimes Lindsay dreaded having him evaluate her work. It wasn’t always pleasant. 

Quickly prodding her phone provided her with the knowledge that she did indeed have one new text message from her boyfriend. Hopefully it was about something completely unrelated. Which seemed extremely unlikely. 

_‘I’ve downloaded your report. It was very thorough.’_

Well, that wasn’t a lot of feedback, but at least it wasn’t bad. Maybe her work hadn’t been a complete nightmare. Lindsay quickly typed a reply, something about how she hadn’t been sure if the report had been good enough or not, before she set her phone aside again. There were plenty of other things left to do and she wasn’t planning on staying at work all night just to get them done.

But twenty minutes later, Lindsay had just finished reading the updated guidelines on _inclusive speech_ , there was another knock on her door. She flinched as though the existence of other people was a complete surprise. 

What the hell was going on today? It was as if the universe itself didn’t want her to get any work done. 

‘Yes?’ she called out, at least managing to sound far less angry this time. 

When the door opened and revealed Connor, any annoyance she had felt disappeared immediately. 

‘Can I come in?’ he asked carefully. It wasn’t completely unusual to see him here, especially since he had gotten clearance to come up to her floor by himself. Even though he didn’t need it, as he had proven in the past, when he had shown up in her office without having been let up by the receptionists. But Connor wasn’t that intent on getting them both into trouble. 

‘Sure,’ Lindsay said and watched as he stepped in, closing the door behind himself. ‘What’s up? Any news about the case?’ 

Usually he only came unannounced when it was work related. He crossed the small room and sat on the chair across from Lindsay’s desk. _No touching at work_ was a bit of a grey area inside of her office. Well, for her at least. Connor was still sticking to it even in the confined and private space. 

‘I’m not here for the case,’ he said finally. ‘You seemed nervous about your report so I came to check on you.’ 

She could feel her head tilt to the side as she made a dumb little noise of adoration. ‘That’s so sweet.’ 

Lindsay did feel stupid for having made Connor come all this way for something as unimportant as her freaking out over her own job. But it wasn’t like she had asked him to come. 

‘So how are you feeling?’ he asked eventually.

‘I’m fine. I just... I don’t know, the report contained a lot of data and I was freaking out that I might have gotten it wrong. And anyway, I was trying to beat Johnson.’ When Lindsay said it out loud, the admission just sounded childish. Beating a co-worker should have never been a goal. 

‘You did well. Besides, Johnson hasn’t even submitted his report yet.’ 

She shrugged, unable to shake the pettiness as she grinned. ‘Good.’ 

Connor frowned at her for a second before his attention seemed to be drawn to something else. It was only then that Lindsay remembered the elephant in the room, shaped like a bouquet and spreading pollen everywhere. So much for solving the problem. 

Maybe Connor wasn’t going to ask and there would be no need to tell him. 

‘So how has your day been so far?’ Lindsay questioned then, trying to focus his attention back on other issues. ‘What happened with the plastic thing you told me about earlier?’ 

This did seem to be of more interest to Connor than the flowers and he spent about a minute giving her a very quick rundown on how he had discovered where the piece of plastic from the graveyard drain had come from. 

‘Good job,’ Lindsay told him genuinely, even though she still thought the whole situation was creepy. ‘I can’t believe you worked that out.’ 

Connor looked proud of himself, for a moment at least. Then his attention shifted back to the bouquet. 

She was going to have to try a little harder. Usually talking about cases was the best way to spark the android’s interest although maybe in this case, he had already matched the two parts together and had told her about it so the story had lost its appeal. 

‘Is there anything else you can tell me about the case?’ Lindsay asked finally. But Connor’s eyes were still glued to the stupid flowers. This was turning into a nightmare very quickly and maybe her more or less carefully crafted solution wasn’t so great after all. 

‘Are you listening?’ she checked after waiting for what felt like ages.

Finally Connor’s eyes snapped back to meet hers again. ‘Yes, of course. You asked if I could tell you anything else about the case.’

It was all it took for him to drift back over to the flowers. Well, at least he had still been listening. But Lindsay’s patience had run out. 

‘Just ask already,’ she said, trying to keep the annoyance out of her tone. 

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ But even Connor didn’t sound convinced of his own words. 

She gave the bouquet a pointed look and drummed her fingers against the top of her desk impatiently. 

‘Who are the flowers from?’ he asked finally, tone carefully neutral. 

Lindsay pulled the card out from under the flowers and held it out for Connor to read. He wordlessly plucked the thick paper from her hands. Of course she remembered exactly what it said and tried not to cring eat the memory of the words.

It took a moment but eventually Connor set the card back down on her desk. 

‘I wasn’t aware that you were still in contact,’ he said flatly. 

‘We’re not. These arrived earlier. I totally thought they were trying to deliver them to the wrong person at first.’ Lindsay didn’t even know why she felt the need to justify herself. She’d done nothing wrong. But Connor just looked so worried. 

‘They’re nice flowers,’ he said finally. 

But she only shrugged. ‘Why give me flowers, though? Everyone knows I’m allergic.’ Considering she was mostly allergic to flowers commonly used in bouquets, sitting next to an enormous bunch of greenery straight from a florist was her true nightmare. Well, that and an android shell filled with human bones. 

‘Then why do you still have them?’ Connor asked and he sounded so accusatory that Lindsay almost felt the need to yell at him. They were her flowers and if she wanted to spend the rest of the day sneezing at them, she damn well would. 

‘I’m waiting for Eva to come back from her break so I can give them to her.’

This explanation didn’t seem to help because Connor still looked like he’d rather set the whole bouquet on fire than let her co-worker have it. 

On the table, Lindsay’s phone vibrated. She ignored it, thinking this really wasn’t the time to check her texts. Connor looked down at the device briefly before looking back up at her. 

‘Listen,’ she began cautiously, ‘I don’t know why you’re being like this but...’ Her phone vibrated again. She caught the android looking at it for the second time and only now realized that despite the distance and his upside down view of the screen, he was still able to read the messages. His jaw began working almost immediately, shifting from side to side. 

Finally Lindsay connected the dots. ‘That’s Aaron, isn’t it?’ 

Connor nodded almost imperceptibly and she looked down at her phone. 

_‘Hey babe, hope you like the flowers! Let me know when you’re free to catch up.’_

Lindsay didn’t even try to hide her eye-roll as she went to block the number. ‘Imagine being that desperate,’ she said then. There had been nothing between them, why do this now after months of silence? 

But Connor didn’t seem to feel the same way about it, his expression still dark. 

‘If you have something to say, just say it,’ Lindsay told him finally. 

‘I don’t like - ’ he gestured between the flowers and her phone while searching for the right word, ‘ - _this_.’ 

It was obvious, really. She didn’t particularly like it either. 

‘Have you done anything that might have led Aaron to believe that you’re still interested in him?’ Connor didn’t even have the decency to look away, to look as though he felt bad for asking. Instead he was watching her, no doubt trying to analyze her reaction, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. 

It was this confidence that made Lindsay want to scream. ‘Are you trying to accuse me of something?’ she asked back, her tone carefully measured, giving Connor the chance to take back his implication. But he seemed intent on staying his course. 

‘Answer the question,’ he said in that firm tone he normally reserved for interrogations. 

Lindsay leant back in her chair. ‘You should go.’ 

‘Excuse me?’ 

‘You heard me. Get out.’ 

He kept his eyes on her as he got up and she resisted the urge to cross her arms in front of her chest. Then Connor suddenly turned on his heels and left, closing the door behind him with more force than necessary. 

Lindsay herself wished for a door to slam. Instead she settled on throwing her pen across the room. It slammed into the wall before falling to the floor uselessly. The damn thing didn’t even break. _Stupid piece of plastic._  

All she wanted was to scream at someone, anyone. But there was no one there to scream at so she reached for the idiotic card and ripped it into pieces. Tiny, tiny pieces. It didn’t offer enough resistance so in a stupid impulsive decision Lindsay unblocked Aaron’s number and sent him an angry text. Something about _don’t ever, EVER message me again_. Then she re-blocked the number. 

Now she just felt like an idiot. Who did that?

A part of her wanted to text Connor to tell him how ridiculous and unfair he was being, but Lindsay was quite sure it would fall on deaf ears. He’d pull some sort of sensible logic out of thin air and leave her feeling she was in the wrong somehow. But she wasn’t. Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you’ve read Trace, you might recognize some of the things mentioned here. And I’m only saying this because I’m very proud of myself for not immediately forgetting everything I’ve written about.


	6. Chapter 6

In the afternoon, the precinct was always busy. It was the loudest time of day, maybe because all the humans tried to get over what they called their _afternoon slump_. Usually it didn’t particularly bother Connor and he just continued to focus on his own work. This time should have been no exception. All the instances of graveyard robberies that had matched the dates they had found at the original crime scene had now been investigated and the teams that had done so had submitted their reports and photos. There wasn’t much to go on, the conclusion of most investigations ending with some formal version of _‘It’s a graveyard and this happened ages ago, what do you expect?’._ Only a few of the photos as well as the pattern at which the robberies had occurred were of any real interest. 

And yet Connor couldn’t focus on any of it. Instead he had looked up Aaron Cheng. No criminal record, employed at some private security company on the other side of the city. Former CyberLife employee, but he had already known that. He’d never met the man back then. It seemed strange, knowing that Connor had only been extra work that had been forced on Lindsay while Aaron had been part of her private life.

The man was good-looking, he supposed. Tall, dark hair, extremely well-built. One of the photos Connor dug up showed him with an ex-girlfriend a few years ago. She was blonde with bright eyes and vaguely looked like Lindsay. Maybe that was it; maybe Aaron just had a type. But it didn’t seem fair to reduce Lindsay to only looks. She was resilient and smart, able to adapt where other people failed. Most of all she was compassionate and kind. Meanwhile Connor was a prototype android that failed to fit in with humans and androids alike. But she’d chosen to be with him and had declined Aaron’s offer to even go on a first date. Surely that meant _something_. 

Then again she had been busy with work at the time. _Work_ quite literally being Connor himself. If Lindsay had the choice again now, would she choose differently? And did _she_ have a type? 

He didn’t know what any of her other former partners look like. It had never mattered before. 

How many were there? All he knew was that Aaron was the most recent one and that there had been others. It was strange to think that Lindsay had known so many different people long before Connor had even been built. 

His train of thought was lost when Officer Sarah Paulson suddenly stopped in front of his desk. He hadn’t heard her arrive.

‘So,’ she said in an overly friendly way, ‘you leaving early today?’ 

‘Excuse me?’ he asked, wondering which part of _strange case with no leads to follow up on_ sounded like he was going to go home early. 

‘I figured you’d have plans for tonight,’ Sarah explained slowly, a grin spreading across her face. ‘You know, since it’s Valentine’s Day.’

_Oh._

‘No plans,’ Connor told her evenly, hoping she wouldn’t ask any further questions. The occasion had been completely out of his consideration and Lindsay hadn’t mentioned it either.

Hank was returning to his desk but didn’t sit down, instead busying himself with pushing items around the timber surface. 

Sarah shifted uncomfortably, maybe no longer wanting to pursue the topic any further. The Lieutenant’s dislike for Connor’s romantic relationship wasn’t exactly a secret. 

‘That’s unfortunate,’ she said finally. ‘I mean, it’s your first Valentine’s Day and everything.’ 

‘Thank you for your concern,’ Connor replied and even he knew it was stiff and formal, but couldn’t come up with anything else to say.

‘Well, anyway, I should get back to work,’ Sarah muttered awkwardly before retreating towards the break room, where she most likely didn’t have any work to do either. Strange.

Connor didn’t have a lot of time to think about it when Hank finally stopped pushing items around his desk, messing it up even more as if it wasn’t already completely unsuitable for work, and turned around. Then he leant against his work station and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

‘No plans for Valentine’s?’ he asked, brows furrowed and a strange gleam in his eyes. ‘Trouble in paradise?’ 

Connor frowned at the man. What did _an ideal or idyllic place or state_ have to do with Valentine’s Day? 

‘Paradise?’ he asked back for clarification.

Hank’s expression changed to one of defeat. ‘It’s a figure of speech. Means havin’ issues in a relationship.’ 

While this cleared up the term, it didn’t help to identify the purpose of the conversation. After all Hank had explicitly told him not to ask for relationship advice and had in fact voiced his disdain for Connor’s romantic relations on multiple occasions. 

‘Lindsay and I never discussed the day,’ he said, considering whether or not he wanted to delve into the topic any further. Then again he was just about clueless on what to do about his actual problem. ‘Although we did have a minor disagreement earlier on.’ 

‘Oh?’ Despite everything Hank seemed very interested, moving to sit on the edge of his desk. ‘What happened?’ 

‘A former partner sent her flowers for Valentine’s Day along with a card, calling her by a romantic nickname and asking to catch up.’ It had been mostly the card that had bothered him. There was something so easily familiar about it, something he felt he couldn’t achieve.

‘And is she going to?’ Why the man seemed almost excited at the prospect was beyond Connor. 

‘No,’ he said, the word coming out too loud and sounding far too defensive even to him. ‘I don’t think so, at least.’ 

‘That’s a shame. So what was the disagreement about?’ 

The android decided to let the comment slide. He had much bigger issues. ‘I asked Lindsay if she had done anything to incite the gesture.’ 

‘Bet she loved that,’ Hank said, sounding amused. 

‘No, actually she got angry and asked me to leave.’

For a moment Hank looked like he was going to say something but then he just shook his head.

‘I don’t understand why this is such a big problem,’ Connor stated then. ‘I just asked a question.’ 

‘Did you use your interrogation voice?’ 

He ran the memory in his mind. ‘I might have.’

At first he hadn’t even understood what people meant by that, but eventually it had been become obvious. It wasn’t even that he meant to use it with the people he cared about but it just happened sometimes. 

‘Listen, kid,’ Hank began again finally, ‘the way I see it, you’re complaining about someone getting your girlfriend a present while I assume you got her nothing.’ 

‘We didn’t discuss buying presents,’ Connor interjected. 

‘Sure. Doesn’t matter. You get her something that’s better than those flowers, you got nothing to be jealous of. Now quit looking so damn sad and get back to work.’ 

 

The advice didn’t help one bit. It took Connor three hours to come to this conclusion. Three hours that he had spent repeating the words to himself over and over again. Three hours that he had spent trying to come up with a present, an apology, anything. 

Instead he had absolutely nothing.

So he hoped that Lindsay would give in first, maybe text him to invite him over. Or ask him to come talk to her. But, _again_ , nothing. 

And so he didn’t leave work until late, even though everyone had long gone home since. It was almost lonely in the nearly dark precinct and Connor was tempted to ask himself what _he_ was even doing there. After all he was the only one who wasn’t a real cop. But what was the point? Asking the question didn’t change the answer. 

Even late that night his day wasn’t done and he headed to an android meeting. Something long and almost boring, repeating the same issues over and over again with no solutions, people yelling at each other for the pettiest of things. The acquisition of feelings hadn’t happened smoothly for everyone and so gathering large groups of androids into a confined space was nearing insanity. And yet they still did it, week after week, with no result whatsoever. 

It only served to remind Connor of work and how little he was moving forward in his investigation there. As if this whole day was supposed to prove just how slow progress was. A tedious process that refused to cooperate when he most wanted it to. 

Even after the meeting, he didn’t feel like going home. What was he supposed to do there anyway? Instead, in what seemed like a risky move, he made his way to Lindsay’s place. She had told him he could always come around after all. Hopefully this included times where she was mad at him. 

It was a strange feeling, really. There was a certain amount of annoyance that stuck with him, brought on by the ridiculous flowers and directed towards Lindsay herself because he did somehow blame her for receiving them. But simultaneously Connor also knew that this was illogical.

And so he ended up in her bed anyway, because he honestly missed her, curled up on what was now his side. Of course Lindsay was fast asleep and oblivious to his presence. At least that way she couldn’t be angry, couldn’t tell him to leave. Even now Connor wasn’t sure how to apologize, or even explain why he reacted the way he had.

Eventually she shifted, rolling over to move closer in what he could only assume was a subconscious search for warmth. But then Lindsay’s eyes flickered open and she blinked a few times to adjust to the soft morning light. Only then did she really seem to notice Connor. 

‘Good morning,’ he said quietly. 

‘Hey.’ Her voice was equally quiet but raspy. Then Lindsay moved even closer, until she was halfway on top of him, her face pressing into his neck as she sighed. Connor searched for her hand with his own, fingers interlacing as their palms pressed together. 

‘When did you get here?’ 

‘Thirty-six minutes ago,’ he told her. ‘I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see me.’

‘I always do.’ Lindsay squeezed his hand to emphasize her words and it almost felt like things were back to normal. _Almost._

‘I’m sorry for the way I acted yesterday.’ It didn’t feel like enough but the right words were hard to find. ‘I didn’t mean to sound like I was accusing you of anything.’

‘I just don’t know why you got so jealous,’ she said softly. 

Was that what it had been? _Jealousy?_ It sounded right. But it also made him feel ridiculous. 

‘I’m not quite sure myself,’ he said then. ‘But I am very sorry.’ 

‘It’s alright.’ Her hand detached from his and moved up into his hair, fingers beginning to work through the strands. ‘How’s your case going?’ 

Always so interested in everything he did, patient with the things Connor couldn’t explain. He wasn’t sure how he would ever show his appreciation for it.

‘A few of the crime scene photos I’ve received may hold some interest but I found it difficult to focus on them yesterday.’ 

‘Why’s that?’ Lindsay was already slurring her words ever so slightly, a sure indicator that she was drifting off again. It wasn’t time for her to get up yet, after all. 

‘I was preoccupied.’

‘Sorry,’ she breathed. If she didn’t sound sorry because she wasn’t or because she was tired remained a mystery. Either way, it was all it took for Lindsay to fall asleep again, her fingers still tangled in his hair. 

Like this, Connor almost felt bad for Aaron. Clearly the man had just tried to reach out, tried to re-connect with someone in a way that beat Connor’s own efforts at February’s special day by miles, only for it to not be appreciated. It was sad in that strange way that reminded him of a completely different scenario, one from a few months before.

He remembered it vividly, like he remembered all things in perfect clarity, so very inhumanly. The persistent snowfall, covering everything in a thick layer of fluffy white. The swimming pool, red and unnatural. The weight of a gun in his hand as he was looking down at another android.

Connor had wanted to shoot her, for the sake of his investigation, for a chance at learning whatever information Kamski had. Another plastic body wiped off its artificial mind had seemed like such a small price to pay. But he hadn’t been able to do it. Chloe had reminded him of Lindsay, only vaguely but _still_. His human handler had always been fair and reasonable, more so than anyone truly needed to be with a machine. In that moment of hesitation he’d seen something akin to fear in Chloe’s eyes, even though that shouldn’t have been possible at all, and that had been all it took to stop him from shooting the android. 

Somehow it seemed like a key moment that had made Connor who he was now, even though he didn’t know much about that person yet. But he decided that he liked himself better like this than he would have if the blood of one more innocent android had been on his hands.

Although that wasn’t why the memory had become prevalent in his mind. What connected the two scenarios, the one from months back and the one only a few hours past, was empathy. _The ability to understand and share the feelings of another._ Such an important thing back then, only annoying now. Connor didn’t want to feel bad for Aaron. 

Sometimes feelings weren’t all they were made up to be.


	7. Chapter 7

Connor didn’t mind mornings. They were no different than any other time of day, didn’t affect him the way they affected humans. After all he didn’t sleep and didn’t get tired,

But still he thought mornings were nicer when Lindsay blinked herself awake next to him, yawning and stretching before she’d tell him about her dreams in that quiet and gentle voice that was reserved only for the times she was sleepy. 

That same feeling of calmness and peace that still accompanied Connor when he made his way into the precinct that morning. It was past eight already, which was much later than he had wanted to come in. But staying away from work was easier when he wasn’t just stuck in the CyberLife tower, watching time tick by slowly. 

To his surprise, and for the first time in his admittedly short career with the DPD, Hank was already there, looking at crime scene photos on his terminal. Connor straightened his tie as he approached his own desk, waiting for the teasing to begin. 

Instead Hank just looked over at him, grinning.

‘So?’ he asked, stretching the syllable out more than necessary. 

‘So?’ Connor repeated, coming to a stop in front of the man’s desk. This was a strange attempt at conversing that he didn’t quite understand. 

Hank on the other hand rolled his eyes. ‘ _So_ , what happened?’ 

‘What happened with what?’ Connor still wasn’t any wiser as to what they were talking about. 

‘Jesus fucking Christ,’ Hank huffed under his breath. ‘What happened with you and your girl?’ 

‘Oh.’ That made a lot more sense. Why couldn’t the man just have said that to begin with? ‘We made up,’ Connor told him finally. 

‘Well, damn. Anyway, you better get to work, kid. That case won’t solve itself.’ _Kid_ made Hank’s first comment practically disappear as Connor tried to process the nickname. It wasn’t the first time that the man had called him that but it still startled him. In a good way. Was that possible? 

This wasn’t the right time to think about it. He needed to make up for the time he had lost the previous day, after all. 

There was one photo in particular that Connor wanted to take a closer look at. A team in Kokomo, Indiana had supplied it after they had visited the former grave of _Warren, Dorothy_ who had died in 1949 and whose grave had been robbed in March 2038, a majority of her bones disappearing. This was, of course, very much like all the other instances. The difference here was that one of the photos from the local team didn’t just include the scene of the crime but also a small strip of road past the low wall that made up the border of the cemetery. There was the post of a streetlight and attached to it a surveillance camera. Its close proximity to the final resting place of so many human remains was an unfortunate side effect of the lack of space in urban areas. Cemeteries simply weren’t profitable enough to dedicate a large amount of land to them, but humans had refused to give up the burial sites their family members, or in this case _ancestors_ , occupied. This fight between citizens and the government had been going on for literal decades and there still was no solution for it. But Connor wasn’t planning on solving the issue. He was only interested in his case and all he needed was to work out who the cameras belonged to and where they kept the surveillance footage that was recorded.

With the consultation of a map to match the scene in the photo to an address and some cleverly executed research, he found what he needed within fifteen minutes. It only took a ten minute phone call and an email to prove Connor was who he claimed to be until the footage arrived in his inbox. 

He went to the trouble of actually watching it on his computer screen, although he did increase the speed of the recording of the day of the crime. The footage was all cars driving by and the occasional person walking along the edge of the frame. Up until 11.30pm, when a blurry figure appeared just at the top of the footage, only caught halfway but still there. They were carrying an object that was even harder to make out. Something long and thin that could have been a shovel.

‘Hank,’ Connor said finally, ‘I think I found something.’ 

This easily distracted the man from whatever he had been doing and he made his way over to the android’s station immediately. In a few short sentences Connor explained where the footage had come from and what exactly they were viewing. Then he pressed the play button.

To his amazement, which was nearly disbelief at this point, the recording showed exactly what he had expected. The blurry figure dug up the ground with a speed and efficiency almost exclusive to androids before they seemed to pull multiple objects from the dirt, stuffing them into a bag. They hastily tossed most of the dirt back into the hole, but didn’t put any effort into truly covering up the damage they had done. Only seconds later they disappeared from view. 

Connor stopped the recording and it was silent for a moment as he mentally took in his small victory and Hank seemed to think. 

‘You call that something?’ he asked finally. ‘It’s just some blurry shapes.’ 

This dampened Connor’s victory considerably. ‘May I remind you that this is better than having nothing?’ he asked back. ‘With the time frame narrowed down and an idea of what I’m looking for, I can now view the rest of the CCTV footage in the area until we find a better image of the suspect.’ 

Despite the fact that Hank didn’t seem impressed, Connor continued on this path. It took a considerable amount of time to track down what he was looking for. Most of the recordings were as blurry as the first one, others had been deleted already. The tediousness of the job was not lessened by the amount of different companies he had to contact to obtain their security camera footage. 

It took two hours for Connor to trace the suspect. He followed their lead along abandoned dark streets and into an automated taxi. From there he tracked the taxi until the suspect exited in front of an inconspicuous house in the suburbs of Kokomo. The most interesting part was that the address of the building had been entered into the taxi via a data transmission, which was confirmation that Connor’s original theory had been correct; the suspect was an android. 

From there it was slow going to track down who the building belonged to. After multiple calls to the city council of Kokomo, they finally agreed to send him the plans for the land. It was owned by a man named Jacob Wilson, born in 1995, who had been an IT specialist in his younger years, starting his own business. Between the rapid progress of technology and the rise of CyberLife, and therefore androids, he hadn’t been able to keep up and eventually Wilson’s company had gone bankrupt. He hadn’t found any work since and even after some research, no one seemed to know where he was. 

Connor thought that considering everything they knew about deviancy, it was unlikely that the android in the surveillance footage was a deviant. Instead it was far more likely that Jacob Wilson had been the driving force behind the grave robberies. 

Of course this didn’t answer why any of it was happening. 

Or how the android in question had ended up in a decent house in Detroit. That building was owned by a woman named Cynthia Clark, which the DPD hadn’t been able to locate so far. They had received her contact information from Detroit’s city council home-ownership data base. Although Connor doubted that the woman, born in 1955, would have had much knowledge about androids anyway at the age of 83. Still, it seemed strange that they weren’t able to contact her. 

Connor looked at the wealth of new information crowding his terminal. At forty years old at the time Jacob Wilson had been born, Cynthia Clark had been old enough to be his grandmother. A young grandmother, certainly, but it wasn’t entirely impossible. 

Not one to discard unlikely theories, Connor did some further digging. It proved that Clark and Wilson were indeed related in the expected way. It also answered the question of why they hadn’t been able to contact Clark; she had died in 2037 but city council had never updated the ownership of her property. 

No, that wasn’t right either. _Properties._  

She had owned another house at the outskirts of Detroit. 

Of course Connor was quick to present this new information to his partner and within twenty minutes they were en route to the newly discovered location. 

Hank had begrudgingly agreed that the android was doing a _good job, very efficient_. Although he hadn’t sounded as enthusiastic as Lindsay usually did when she praised him for his skills. But this wasn’t the only thing that bothered Connor. While Hank usually played his own music in the car, he had decided to listen to the radio this time. Except the station was playing some broadcast of a sports event that Connor found he didn’t care for in the slightest. And so he set out to find a better station to listen to, reaching out to push the button that would make this change happen.

‘What the fuck are you doing?’ Hank growled the moment the radio station changed. 

‘I’m looking for something else to listen to.’ Connor thought that should have been obvious, really. 

‘Driver picks the damn music.’ Said driver changed the radio station back. 

‘Lindsay lets me pick the music even when she’s driving,’ Connor pointed out. Clearly Hank had just made up that rule.

‘Good for her,’ the man said finally. 

‘And technically this isn’t _music_ ,’ Connor added then. With the issue resolved, he reached out once more to resume his search for a better radio station. 

‘Touch that fucking button,’ Hank hissed at him, ‘and I swear to god I will kick your ass out of the car right here.’

The android froze, hand still hovering mid-air before he dropped it back into his lap. This was not going to be fun. 

Luckily they reached their destination shortly after, a run-down building in an untidy-looking street. Where the house had once been white, it was a dirty shade of grey now. The front door was missing its glass pane, which had been replaced by a timber board. Apart from that, the place looked abandoned. There were no cars, no footprints, no signs of life whatsoever. 

Hank let Connor take the lead and he rang the doorbell. 

Once. 

Twice. 

_Nothing._

This wasn’t entirely unexpected due to the condition of the residence and its surroundings. Finally Connor took to banging his hand against the door instead. 

‘Detroit Police!’ he shouted. ‘Open up!’

Still, nothing. 

Next to him, Hank shrugged. Then he moved away from the small front porch and around the side of the house. 

‘Where are you going?’ Connor called after him and eventually followed the man when he received no answer.

Hank pushed the small gate at the side of the house, leading to the backyard, open. They were most definitely trespassing now.

The backyard looked similar to the front of the house: an untidy pit of mud and some dead grass, nothing interesting. But landscaping wasn’t what they had come here for as was made apparent when Hank moved to the mouldy-looking backdoor. Before Connor had the chance to protest, the man had already rattled the door hard enough for the lock to just pop out, taking half of the door frame with it.  Hank gave the android a victorious grin over his shoulder as he pulled the door open. Then, almost as if struck by a bout of instant Karma, he recoiled. 

He swore in between coughs and Connor took it upon himself to investigate the situation. But before he even made it across the threshold, his receptors picked up particles of hydrogen sulfide and dimethyl disulfide in the air. 

‘There’s a body in here,’ he muttered to himself. 

‘Yeah, no shit, Sherlock,’ Hank said, having finally recovered from the strong smell. ‘Go open some windows.’ 

 

The house was almost eerily quiet. Just stalking through the living area to open the windows without ever having checked if the house was actually empty was perhaps not the safest decision, but Connor reasoned that it was extremely unlikely anyone else was there. Finally Hank entered the building as well even though he was still grimacing at the smell.

The ground floor was made up of a living area, a kitchen and a small bathroom, as well as a set of stairs. Everything was clean, tidy, as if the house hadn’t been abandoned deliberately. 

They climbed the stairs to the second floor, where the smell of death grew only stronger according to Hank’s face and the chemical particles that Connor’s receptors filtered out of the air. The second floor was a hallway with a selection of doors on either side, the space as clean as the ground floor had been. 

Connor reached out then, twisting the handle on the closest door and pushing it open. There was nothing extraordinary about the bedroom. A built in wardrobe, a queen size bed, two nightstands.

What did stand out was the body slowly disintegrating into the mattress. 

‘Fucking hell,’ Hank muttered under his breath. 

Connor stepped closer, surveying the scene in front of him. The body had been rotting away for approximately six months already, presumably freezing and thawing multiple times during the winter. This process hadn’t done it any favors. It was downright _sludgy_ , the flesh looking as though it was about to melt. Disintegrated to the point of being unrecognizable, Connor wasn’t able to identify the victim by their face. Despite of that he was quite certain that the cause of death had been a well-placed shot to the chest. At least if the hole in that area was anything to go by. 

Meanwhile Hank was calling for backup, pacing the hallway. Unable to do anything, Connor left the bedroom and shut the door behind him.

While the next room smelled better, it was still a disturbing scene: there were pieces of androids everywhere. From old mechanical parts to newer examples, bio-components preserved in jars and bags of Thirium.

Even more interesting; there was a large Thirium stain on the floor. It had evaporated a long time ago and the layer of residue left behind was only thin, but just enough for Connor to still be able to sample it. He bent down, swiping his fingers through the substance multiple times to gather a large enough sample. Then he unceremoniously licked it off his fingertips. 

Hank had long since given up on commenting on Connor’s rather unique way of taking samples but that didn’t stop him from watching the android with a look of utter disgust. 

The blood had belonged to a AK700 model android, serial number 146-870-315. It had been recorded as stolen three years prior. 

This information wasn’t helpful for now and Connor turned his attention back towards investigating the room. He found a storage device in between the android parts. Other than that, the room held nothing of interest. The two remaining bedrooms were completely empty. 

From outside, he could hear the backup team arriving.


	8. Chapter 8

They didn’t stay and wait for the crime scene to be secured. Instead, Connor pocketed the storage device and Hank drove them back to the station. 

‘Good find, kid,’ the man said about halfway through the journey. 

‘Thank you.’ The compliment was well deserved, Connor thought. After all he was the only one who had been turning up results in this investigation so far. And yet it felt nice to have someone else point out his hard work. 

Back at the precinct, the engineer supplied by the department had made progress on the exoskeleton discovered at the first crime scene. He had identified it as a AK700 model. Of course Connor saw the connection immediately.

‘It’s the same model android as the one who lost the blood at Cynthia Clark’s house,’ he explained to Hank.

‘So, what does that mean?’

‘I’m not certain,’ Connor admitted. ‘Maybe they were the same android.’

The storage device turned out to be much more promising. It contained an extremely large file that had been added approximately four months prior. When they opened the file, Connor recognized what it was straight away. 

‘This is the software of an android,’ he pointed out. Which didn’t seem helpful to Hank at all. 

‘What does that mean?’ 

‘If we had only the body of an android, we could upload this to make it functional,’ Connor explained patiently.

‘So what are we gonna do with that?’ 

‘ _We_ aren’t going to do anything with it.’

It took a moment for the man to catch up, but when he did, he rolled his eyes. 

‘Just when I thought this day couldn’t get any fucking worse.’

 

Storage device in tow, they made their way to the department. Of course Connor had called Lindsay first, asking if there was anything she could do with android software. Usually she just took readings from already functional systems and evaluated them along with the actual physical behavior of androids. But she had reassured him that she knew how to work the data. And Connor trusted her. If he was going to have to rely on someone to solve this investigation, he was glad that it was her. Even though Hank didn’t feel the same way at all. 

Lindsay had sent directions to one of the departments labs, located on a different floor than her office. They found it easily enough, the doors wide open as she was already working on something. But Connor stopped on the threshold. He had always liked watching her work, a reminder of how intelligent she was. Lindsay had blown through CyberTech’s bachelor and master’s programs in record time, graduating top of her year. Somewhere in between the recent changes and her new job, people seemed to forget that she had been a promising young analyst at some point. But Connor hadn’t forgotten. He still saw it in her and every time he did, there was something gentle and warm flooding his systems, tugging the corners of his mouth upwards. 

‘What the fuck are you doing, Connor?’ Hank said behind him and the spell was broken. 

Finally he forced himself to continue walking, just as Lindsay turned around. She beamed at him as if the android was bringing her a wonderful present rather than a storage device.

‘Give me the goodies,’ she said as she held out her hand. 

Connor didn’t hesitate to hand her the device as Hank already began to venture off, presumably to explore the lab. It wasn’t the kind of lab that came with chemicals and research equipment. Instead, it was crammed with high-processing computers and a multitude of screens spread out over several large desks. 

‘This looks like some hacker’s headquarters straight out of a movie,’ Hank asserted. 

Lindsay shrugged as she connected the storage device to the computer system, beginning to transfer and unpack the files. ‘That’s one way of seeing it.’ 

Connor watched the screens for a moment longer as they ran through the specific files currently unpacking. ‘Shouldn’t we call Johnson to help with this?’ 

‘No, why?’ Lindsay frowned up at him, just mentioning the man’s name already enough to make her tense.

‘While I completely trust your capabilities, this seems like too large a simulation for only one person to run.’ Connor knew this was dangerous territory and for a moment he was certain she would yell at him.

But Hank was oblivious to this shift in mood. ‘Wait, simulation? What the hell are you doing? Aren’t you like, some analyst?’

Instead of being annoyed at Connor, Lindsay was obviously annoyed at Hank now. It was both good and bad at the same time. ‘Really?’ she asked back. ‘It’s been three months and you still don’t know what I do. It’s behavioral analysis.’

‘Yeah, whatever. So what’s this simulation for?’ 

Lindsay sighed and began to drum her fingers against the edge of the desk. ‘Right now, there’s nothing for me to analyze. This is only a bunch of software. Which is why we have to run a functional simulation first to gather behavioral data.’ 

Hank blinked at her across the screens. ‘In English, please.’

Before Lindsay had the chance to explode and kick the man out of the lab all together, Connor decided to intervene. ‘What we’re doing is essentially running the software from the storage device on these computers, which will emulate the exact components of the android it originated from. Then we can gather accurate real-time data about how the android functions and how it behaves.’

It was a simple, straight-forward explanation. And yet...

‘Yeah, that didn’t fucking help.’

Lindsay stopped drumming her fingers against the desk. ‘We make the computer pretend it’s the android whose software is on the storage device so we can work out what the fuck they’re doing.’ Then she turned around to face Connor. ‘Why did you bring him?’

‘He’s my superior.’ They usually worked together. It was the whole point of being partners.

‘I don’t like it any fucking more than you do,’ Hank grumbled from across the screens.

But Lindsay had already decided to ignore him, instead focusing her attention back on the task at hand. The data had been transferred and unpacked, so she began to direct the component information to different computers, assigning tasks and entering values. Some information was filled in automatically but Connor watched as she still checked all of it herself. As chaotic as Lindsay was privately, at least it didn’t affect her work. She was thorough and methodical, something Connor could appreciate. 

It took a while but eventually she seemed to be satisfied with her work and ready to begin the simulation. They started with running their make-believe android in idle-mode, before adding various tasks such as simple conversations. But then Lindsay sighed and paused the simulation. 

‘Something isn’t right here.’

‘What do you mean?’ Connor asked in confusion.

‘Well, this android isn’t a deviant. Their readings aren’t like anything I’ve seen in any deviant. The readings are much more like those of a non-sentient android, but their behavior is irrational and completely unpredictable.’ 

‘So, the android is deviant but it’s also... not?’ 

‘Look at that, it’s Schrödinger’s android,’ Hank said and most likely all three of them, the man himself included, were surprised that he hadn’t fallen asleep yet.

‘Yeah, you never know what’s in the box,’ Lindsay said absentmindedly as she was clicking through the original software. ‘Look at this. It’s so... messy.’ 

Connor scanned the lines of coding. They were confusing, all over the place. As if someone didn’t know what they were doing. ‘I’m not certain how someone with such rudimentary skills would be able to program something like this.’

‘They wouldn’t.’ Lindsay looked at the mess for a moment longer. ‘Maybe it’s deliberate.’

‘Jacob Wilson was an IT specialist in his younger years. He could have the skills to do this.’ If only they had found a way to contact the man. 

‘Who?’ 

‘Oh, right. He’s a person of interest we’ve discovered in regards to the case.’ Connor had very cleverly avoided mentioning their more recent discoveries so he didn’t have to tell Lindsay about the body they had found. She didn’t really need to know about that. But either way, she already wasn’t paying attention anymore, now focused on the screen again as she rapidly typed command after command. 

‘Did you find something?’ 

Lindsay only hummed in reply, still distracted by the task at hand. But eventually she seemed satisfied and gestured at the screen. ‘Look. Whoever programmed this gave that android a full protocol of what to do. Including grave robbery.’ 

Connor scanned the first few lines over her shoulder. One of the instances mentioned there was familiar: the disturbance of a grave somewhere in Iowa. The name and date of death on the grave, as well as the date of the incident matched the reported case. 

‘What the hell does that mean?’ Hank asked impatiently. This part of the investigation clearly wasn’t pleasant for him. After all his blatant dislike of technology and everything that came with it was well known. 

‘It means that the android’s entire behavioral protocol is just a long list of bones to steal and what to do with them, including dates and places. Actually it’s quite well planned. But everything else it does is just... random. It doesn’t have any other tasks or skills.’ 

‘So it’s just going through a really fucking weird to-do list?’ Hank frowned. ‘Then what?’ 

Lindsay shrugged. ‘The protocol just ends at some point, as if it wasn’t finished.’ 

Connor had already taken note of the end of the protocol, strange and almost clumsy, a final grave robbery to be committed in Chicago in just a few weeks’ time. But there was something far more interesting. 

‘There’s an incident scheduled for tonight,’ Connor said. ‘At Woodland cemetery, about twenty minutes away from here.’


End file.
